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Eggs from the pig whipworm Trichuris suis (TSO) reduce the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which are both inflammatory bowel diseases – but why? At the moment, no-one is quite clear, but researchers at NYU School of Medicine are starting a clinical trial to try to find out – if you are in the US and want to join, the details about the trial are here. It may be that the parasites change the quantity and type of bacteria that are attached to the intestinal wall.

Hookworms seem to cure allergies – this could be down to the hygiene hypothesis, where life is now so ‘clean’ that the immune system doesn’t have enough to do and attacks the body.

Some of the Olympic venue sites have been cleaned up using bioremediation as part of one of the world’s largest brownfield regeneration projects. Brownfield sites are previous industrial sites and include the Aquatic Centre, where the ground was contaminated with lubricating oil. The process used indigenous microbes to aerobically biodegrade the oil, supported with REGENESIS’ Advanced Oxygen Release Compound, which released oxygen over 12 months.

Children brought up with animals, and youngest children in families, are often the least likely to get asthma, and this may be down to the microbiome (all the bacteria) in the home’s house dust. Mice fed house dust from homes with dogs were more likely to be immune to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) than mice fed with dust from non-dog homes. RSV is a common childhood infection, and children exposed to it are more likely to get asthma.The microbes in their gut were also different.

Bacteria, fungi and primitive organisms (archaea) living on rocky soils on volcanoes in South America seem to convert energy from gases such as carbon monoxide and dimethyl sulfide rather than using known processes like photosynthesis.